Part IV, Chapter 21: "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark," Act 4

Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier, in his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries "A rat, a rat,"
And in this brainish apprehension kills
The unseen good old man.

Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier, in his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries "A rat, a rat,"
And in this brainish apprehension kills
The unseen good old man.

Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrained, and out of haunt
This mad young man

...but so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit,
But like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life

Come Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends,
And let them know both what we mean to do
And what's untimely done

My soul is full of discord and dismay.

Not where he eats, but where a' is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him.

Yes, it is already garrisoned.

Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras
Craves the conveyance of a promised march
Over his kingdom.

Now whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th'event—
A thought which quartered hath but one part wisdom,
And ever three parts coward—I do not know
Why yet I live to say "This thing's to do,"
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
To do't

Now whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th'event—
A thought which quartered hath but one part wisdom,
And ever three parts coward—I do not know
Why yet I live to say "This thing's to do,"
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
To do't

...examples gross as earth exhort me

She is importunate, indeed distract,
Her mood will needs be pitied.

'Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself, in fearing to be spilt.

Larded all with sweet flowers,
Which bewept to the ground did not go,
With true-love showers.

Then up he rose, and donned his clo'es,
And dupped the chamber door,
Let in the maid, that out a maid,
Never departed more.

...and we have done but greenly
In hugger-mugger to inter him

Wherein necessity, of matter beggared,
Will nothing stick our person to arraign
In ear and ear

O my dear Gertrude, this
Like to a murdering-piece in many places
Gives me superfluous death.

The ocean, overpeering of his list,
Eats not the flats with more impiteous haste
Than young Laertes in a riotous head
O'erbears your officers

The ocean, overpeering of his list,
Eats not the flats with more impiteous haste
Than young Laertes in a riotous head
O'erbears your officers

...the rabble call him lord,
And as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every word,
They cry "Choose we, Laertes shall be king!"

That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard,
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here between the chaste unsmirchéd brows
Of my true mother.

Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art this incensed.

To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms,
And like the kind life- rend'ring pelican,
Repast them with my blood.

To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms,
And like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,
Repast them with my blood.

They bore him barefaced on the bier,
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny:
And in his grave rained many a tear—
Fare you well my dove.

His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll,
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan,
God ha' mercy on his soul.

If by direct or by collateral hand
They find us touched, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours
To you in satisfaction

To thine own peace: if he be now returned,
As checking at his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it, I will work him
To an exploit, now ripe in my device,
Under the which he shall not choose but fall

That we would do
We should do when we would: for this "would" changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,
And then this "should" is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing, but to the quick of th'ulcer

That we would do
We should do when we would: for this "would" changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,
And then this "should" is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing, but to the quick of th'ulcer

...he being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils, so that with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice
Requite him for your father.

...he being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils, so that with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice
Requite him for your father.

...he being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils, so that with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice
Requite him for your father.

I bought an unction of a mountebank
So mortal, that but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood, no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can save the thing from death
That is but scratched withal

When in your motion you are hot and dry,
As make your bouts more violent to that end,
And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepared him
A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,
Our purpose may hold there

Her clothes spread wide,
And mermaid-like a while they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element

Adieu my lord,
I have a speech o'fire that fain would blaze,
But that this folly douts it.